1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates to containers for packing live lobsters and crustaceans for shipment by carriers of all types; and in particular to an insulated and compartmentalized container system for the orderly packing, shipping, and unpacking of live lobsters.
2. Background Art
For many years there has been a large demand for live lobsters at areas distant from where the lobsters are harvested. To satisfy this demand, lobsters have been packaged and shipped great distances, including shipment by air transport.
Initially lobsters were shipped in wooden crates and boxes. This was changed to a less expensive means such as wax boxes or curtain coated boxes. Eventually, boxes were produced of foamed polymers such as polystyrene (Styrofoam(trademark)) or similar low density, injection molded plastic. At first, the foam plastic was used as an outer wall or box, for its insulation value. Lobster are a live product, and must be kept continuously cool from the time caught, through initial processing, packing, shipment, retail handling and sale, to final delivery to the consumer""s kitchen. Mortality of the lobsters while in the channel of distribution results from various problems, most of which can be generally labeled as heat damage. The need for effective insulation, in part, led to the development of a box produced and distributed under the trademark, Cloud Pack(trademark), a mark and product with which this applicant is not associated.
The Cloud Pack(trademark) box is a commercial embodiment of the design disclosed in LaRosa""s U.S. Pat. No. 5,218,923, issued Jun. 15, 1993. It is a foam plastic packing system in the form of a three piece box; the preformed pieces consisting of a top section or cover, an intermediate section with an open top and bottom and two longitudinal partitions, and a lower section with vertically oriented, open top compartments. The three sections are all made of Styrofoam, and interlock with tongue and groove joints.
The top section dimensions are 14xc2xd inches wide, 25 inches long and 3 inches high, with a 1 inch Styrofoam wall and top thickness, providing about two inches of depth within the cover section. The intermediate section dimensions are 14xc2xd wide, 25 inches long, and 6 inches high with the two partitions about one quarter inch thick running from end to end, and with about a one and one half inch wall thickness around the sides. The bottom section dimensions are 14xc2xd inches wide, 25 inches long, five inches high, with individual, open top, vertically oriented, square cells that are about four inches deep, suitable for tail first stuffing with a lobster of suitable size. The number of cells varies between box models. There are three types a 32 cell box, a 28 cell box, and a 21 cell box known to the applicant, the numbers generally varying inversely with the size of the lobster for which the box is intended.
The Cloud Pack requires an aluminum jig fitting over the cell network of the bottom section, as a further upward extending partition used to keep the lobsters claws separated during the packing process. If the jig is lifted prematurely, even a small amount, lobster parts may spill underneath it and it will likely be impossible to reposition the jig to complete the fill. So the box must be emptied, the jig repositioned, and the box refilled again. When filled and closed, the box is banded for shipment. Some freight carriers will accept the box in this fashion; others require or prefer that it be enclosed and sealed in an outer shipping carton, to reduce the likelihood of leakage in transit.
When unloading the box at the retail end, after removal of the cover, the refrigerator ice pack or ice and wet paper, and the intermediate section of the box, the lobster""s claws and head and upper body are exposed. The user must carefully lift each lobster from its individual compartment. If not done carefully claws can break away, in part because even under the most careful removal technique, the sharp edges of the lobster""s tail may rake, rip and hold onto the foam cell partition, resisting the tug on its claws. Even when successful, the raking action is likely to cause small beads to break away and fragment from the compartment partitioning structure. This foam debris clings to the lobster, causing a further problem when the lobster is put into a tank or container containing a filtration system. The foam beads float on top of the water and tend to clog filters and pumps.
The first Styrofoam boxes, intended mainly for their insulation value, were open boxes into which the lobster were stacked horizontally, as they had been in the earlier wooden crates. Lobsters were laid down one on top of the other by various standard weights. Examples are listed below:
The TP stands for Tech Pak which is a manufacturer of Styrofoam boxes. There are other companies that make or distribute these boxes using the initials of their company as the first two letters of the box. An example is Arjay National, with its AN30 and AN40 boxes.
Other companies make other foam boxes with various shapes according to their weight capacity, as an inner box component to their lobster packing system. All generally use the foam box as an insulating shell providing approximately xc2xe inch wall thickness for insulation value. Once filled and closed, the foam boxes are inserted into a corrugated cardboard carton as the outer layer of the shipping container.
Other prior art providing context for an understanding of the disclosure that follows includes Flynn""s U.S. Pat. No. 5,555,845, Container and Method for Transporting Live Crustaceans, issued Sep. 17, 1996; Spiegel""s U.S. Pat. No. 5,390,815, Container with Adjustable Compartments, issued Feb. 21, 1995; Doughty""s U.S. Pat. No. 3,958,359, Sportsman""s Combination Receptacle and Ice Chest, issued May 25, 1976; and Hisey""s U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,335, Minnow and Fish Preserving Container, issued Sep. 24, 1991.
Styrofoam boxes created a better packaging for the lobsters and other crustaceans. However, mortality problems were still a significant factor so alternative solutions were tried, cell packing probably being the most significant. Inside the various boxes, there is a celled partition system of squares, somewhat like a grid or honeycomb, commonly a set of crisscrossing cardboard partitions that is inserted into the box prior to filling. The partitioning system gives each lobster its own individual compartment or cell, preventing the crushing of lobsters by their collective weight and by jostling while in transit, which causes damage and ultimately some degree of mortality.
This new partition packing arrangement has basically taken over the packaging industry in specific areas such as loose freight or individual store deliveries. It is mostly used to provide the customer or end user a high quality live lobster. Further steps were taken to make an even stronger sturdier box or series of boxes known as the HDS series. Two of which are known as the HDS5 and HDS6. The HDS5 is used mostly as a plain Styrofoam box shipped to Japan. Basically it is the same as a TP40 except, slight different shape. Most importantly a thicker foam wall providing more insulation value is still used with a cell partition as is the HDS6.The HDS6 being a slightly taller box used with a thick outer corrugated and a 24 cell partition.
Although these foam box systems provide more insulation value that the older wooden crates, they still are not the ultimate solution to the packing problems a lobster company faces. Styrofoam boxes with cell partition seem to be the way to ship a better quality lobster with lower mortality, but they need to be incorporated together to provide even better shipping and greater ease of packing and unpacking of the lobsters, and elimination of the foam debris. These reasons will make the design of a new box more desirable for reasons of labor costs, mortality, ease of manufacturing and better handling at the retail end. Incorporating cell partitions and other benefits of injection molded components into a single box system is what the following design is all about.
It is an object of the invention to provide a box for packing, transporting, and unpacking live lobsters and other crustaceans, consisting of at least two sidewall components, each with a mating face, each mating face formed with at least one elongate, open top pocket. The two sidewall components are removably connectable at their mating faces to form an open top box, with the pockets aligned so as to form open top cells into which lobsters can be inserted tail first. There is also a top component which is removably connectable to the topside of the box formed by the joining of the two sidewall components face to face.
It is a further object of the invention to provide for the box at least one cell partition component with two mating faces, where each mating face is likewise formed with at least one elongate open top pocket. Each of the sidewall components is connectable to at least one mating face of the cell partition so as to have the assemblage of all components form an open top box. The top component in this case would be of a suitable size to fit the open top box with its cell partition layer between the sidewall components.
It is a yet further object of the invention that the at least one pocket on a mating face be four pockets uniformly distributed on the mating face.
It is another object of the invention that it be deconstructable during unloading so as to first remove the top, set the box on end, and then remove the upper sidewall so as to split open a first row of cells for inspection and removal of the first row lobsters, and then to remove subsequent layers of the box, exposing subsequent rows of lobsters for inspection and removal.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become readily apparent to those skilled in this art from the following detailed description, wherein we have shown and described only a preferred embodiment of the invention, simply by way of illustration of the best mode contemplated by us on carrying out our invention.